Machine for disintegrating fibrous plants.



No. 880,661. PATENTED MAR. 3, 190a.

-B. HARTMAN.

MAGHINE FOR DISINTBGRATING FIBROUS PLANTS.

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PATENTED MAR. 3, 1908.

B. HARTMAN. MACHINE FOR DISINTBGRATING PIBROUS PLANTS.

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APPLICATION FILED IEIB. 2. 1907.

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UNITED srn'rns Parana curios.

EMIL HARTMAN, OF HOUSTON, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR OF EIGHTY-FIVE ONE-HUNDREDTHSTO LON G. HILL, OF BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS.

MACHINE FOR DISINTEG-RATING FIBROUS PLANTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 3,1908.

Application filed February 2, 1907. Serial No. 355,505

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMIL HARTMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Houston, in the county of Harris and State of Texas, haveinvented a new and useful Machine for Disintegrating Fibrous Plants, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in machines for disintegratingfibrous plants, and its object is to provide a means for removing thepulpy material from the leaves of fibrous plants in order to obtain thefiber in a cleaned condition, so that it may be employed for commercialpurposes.

The machine is especially adapted for the extraction of fiber from theleaves of the henequen, maguey, lechugia, palma, and other similarfibrous plants.

The invention comprises essentially a series of feeding rolls receivingthe leaves on a suitable support, and these feeding rolls act upon theleaves to initially crush or break them without, however, injuring thefiber. The leaves are grasped about midway of their length by a flexiblecarrier in such manmer that approximately one half of aleaf will becarried to a point where it may be acted upon by scraping knives whichwill remove the soft pulpy material from the fiber, and from theseknives the partially cleaned leaves are carried to other knives in suchmanner that those portions of the leaves which have been unacted upon bythe first set of knives are then cleaned by the second set of knives,after which the cleaned fibers are removed from the machine and treatedin any appropriate manner.

The invention will be fully understood from the following detaileddescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings formingpart of this specification, in which,-

Figure 1 is a plan view of the machine; Fig. 2 is an elevation of thesame; and Fig. 3 is a detail view showing an elevation of one end of thefeeding rolls and adjacent parts.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a feeding table 1 upon whichthe leaves 2 from which the fiber is to be extracted are laidpreparatory to feeding them to feeding and crushing or breaking rolls34. These rolls are journaled in a suitable frame 5 and extend laterallyacross the feeding end ofthe table 1 and are provided with breakinggribs5. The leaves, after passing between these rolls, are received betweenanother pair of rolls 67, also j ournaled in the frame 5, and extendingacross an extension 8 of the table 1. The rolls 67 are coupled togetherto turn in opposition by pinions 99, and the rolls 3& are also coupledtogether to turn in opposition by pinions 1010, and these rolls are madeto turn in unison in the proper direction by ashort countershaft 11carried by a journal bearing 12 fast to the frame 5 and having at eachend a bevel pinion, one pinion 13 meshing with a bevel pinion 14 on theend of the shaft of the roll 7, which end is extended beyond the pinion9 carried thereby for this purpose. The pinion 15 upon the other end ofthe countershaft 11 meshes with a bevel pinion 16 upon the shaft of theroll 3, which is extended at this point beyond its pinion 10 for thepurpose of receiving the bevel pinion 16.

The countershaft 11 is extended beyond the pinion 13 and is thereconnected by means of a universal oint 17 with a shaft 18 having ajournal bearing 19 in a standard 20 and carrying a gear wheel 21 meshingwith a pinion 22 upon a main drive shaft 23 journaled in the standard 20and also in another standard 24 adjacent to the standard 20 and havingstill another bearin in a third stand ard 25. Upon this drive s aft 23is a main drive pulley 26, receiving power from any suitable source, andthe drive shaft also carries beyond the ournal bearing in the standard25 another pulley 27, to be hereinafter referred to. It will beunderstood, of course, that the pinion 22 and gear wheel 21 may bereplaced by a short belt drive, if so desired.

A little to one side of the middle of the roller 7, the latter isgrooved, as shown at 28-29, Fig. 1, to'form two adjacent parallelsheaves, and suitably journaled in the frame 5 above these sheaves 2829are other sheaves 30, adjacent and parallel, and arranged to rotate inplanes at right angles to the planes of rotation of the sheaves 2829. Journaled in suitable brackets 31 at the end of the frame 5 remote fromthe driving end of the rollers is another pair of sheaves 32, and belowthese sheaves 32 and idly rotating upon an extension 33 of the shaft ofthe roller 7 are other sheaves 34. Instead of extending the shaft of theroller 7 and utilizing this for the support of the sheaves 34,i thelattermay be mounted upon a stud fast on the frame 5 in line with theaxis of the said roller 7.

The sheaves 30, 32 and 34 are all idlers and around them pass twoendless ropes or bands 35-36, which also pass around the sheaves 28 and29 and around a drum 37 mounted upon a vertical shaft 38 so that itsperiphery at one side is approximately in line with the sheaves 28-29,before referred to. This drum 37 has two adjacent parallel grooves 39-40in its periphery. The rope, cable or band 35 passes from the sheave 38around the drum 37 in the groove 39, thence to one of the idlers 34,thence upward over one of the idlers 32 to one of the idlers 30, and,finally, downward and under the sheave 28. The other rope, cable or band36 passes from the sheave 29 around the drum in the groove 40, thence toone of the idlers 34, and upward over one of the idlers 32, and,finally, over one of the idlers 30 and downward to the said sheave 29.

Extending across the discharge end of the table extension 8 from a pointnear the sheave 28 to the frame 5 at that end where the idler sheaves 32and 34 are mounted, is a guide plate 41 having the end nearest themiddle of the roll 7 extended to a point adjacent to the meeting pointof the rope 35 with the groove 39 of the drum 37 and this plate is bentupward and over the periphery of the drum 37 as shown at 42, from nearthe point of contact of the ropes 3536 with the drum to near the end ofthe plate adjacent to the right-hand terminus of the plate as viewed inFig. 1. Extending over the upper surface of the drum 37, adjacent to itsouter edge, is a guide bar 43. This guide bar 43 extends from a pointover the plate 41 where the latter begins to overlap the drum 37 to apoint about coincident with the point on the drum 37 where the ropes3536 leave it, and at this point the guide bar is supported by a bracket:10 fast on the frame 5. Now, when the broken. leaves pass from betweenthe rolls 67 one end, and, in the case shown, the outer or smaller endsof the leaves, are received upon the plate 41 and are grasped betweenthe same and the ropes 3536, the other or butt ends of the leavesfalling by gravity downward over the leftlFl and edge of the plate 41,as viewed from It being understood that the ropes travel from thesheaves 2829 toward and around the drum 37, it will be seen that theleaves are carried by the ropes across the plate 41 until the smallerends pass under the end. of the guide bar 43. As the leaves progress,the small ends are carried up by the upturned edge 42 of the plate 41where it overhangs the drum 37 until these small ends pass from theupturned end of the plate 41 and drop and lie upon the top of the drum37. The leaves are grasped between the ropes 3536 and the bottoms of thegrooves 3940 of the drum 37, which grooves are preferably lined withsome soft material, such, for instance, as rubber. After the leaves havebeen firmly grasped between the ropes 3536 and the drum 37 the pendentends are carried. over a block 44 having its upper end slightly overhungby the drum 37 and having a rib 45 on its upper end adjacent to thegroove 39 of the drum 37, and projecting from this block into the pathof the advancing leaf butts is a guide 46 formed on said block. As theleaves reach the guide 46 the pendent portions are carried up to andover a quadrantal face 47 formed on said block 44 in the path ofscraping knives 48 fast on each side of the outer ends of arms 49mounted and fast on the shaft 23 between the two standards 20 and 24.

As the leaves are carried across the face 47 of the block 44, whichlatter may be a heavy solid block, the softer parts of the leaves arescraped away from the tough fibrous portion, and the fibers aretherefore freed from the pulp and retain all their natural strength,being unaffected as they might be were they treated chemically for thepurpose of removing the pulp. It will be seen, of course, that thefeeding of the leaves across the block 44 and the rotation of the arms49 will be so timed that the fibers will be thoroughly freed from alladhering puly matter within the time occupied in carrying them acrossthe block.

The partially cleaned leaves continue with the drum around the axisthereof to a point about coincident with the place where the ropes 35-36 leave the grooves 39-40 to pass around the loose sheaves 34. At thispoint there is another 'drum 50 having grooves 5152, also lined withrubber or other soft material, and this drum 50 is preferably made ofless diameter than the drum 37. The drum 50 is mounted upon a verticalshaft 53. Around the drum 50 and engaging in the grooves 51-52 areendless ropes 54 passing from the drum 50 to a pair of idle sheaves 55mounted to turn on a vertical spindle 56 carried by a suitable standard57, thence to other idle sheaves 58 mounted upon a vertical. axiscarried by a standard 59 and located conveniently below the drum 37,thence over another pair of idlers 60 mounted beneath the drum 37 upon asuitable standard 61, and from this latter pair of idlers the ropesagain pass to the grooves of the drum 50. The idlers 60 are so placedthat the ropes 54 will pass therefrom. to the drum 50 in the path of thecleaned fibers depending from the drum 37 approximately coincident withthe release of the uncleaned smaller ends of the leaves from the drum 37by the passage of the ropes 3536 from the latter.

The drum is located below the level of the drum 37, and, therefore, thecleaned fibrous ends of the leaves are grasped between the' ropes 54 anddrum 50 at a point some little distance from the junction between theuncleaned ends and the fibers. As the drum 5O continues to rotate, theuncleaned ends are pulled ofi the drum 37 and fall so as to depend fromthe drum 50. When the drum 50 has made nearly half a rotation from thepoint where it received the leaves, the latter are brought against aguide 62 formed on the advance side of a block 63 similar to the block44 before described eX- cept that it is not so large as the said block44. Like the block 44, this block 63 has a quadrantal face 64 in thepath of soft metal scraping knives 65 fast on and projecting radiallyfrom the ends of radial arms 66 secured to and turning with a shaft 67mounted in journal bearings 68 at the upper ends of standards 69 on eachside of and close to the arms 66. The shaft 62 extends through a journalbearing 70 on the upper end of another standard 71, and beyond thisjournal bearing 70 the shaft 67 carries a ulley 72 which is connected bya belt 73 to t 1e pulley 27 on the power shaft 23, the belt 73 beingcrossed so that the shafts 23 and 67 will rotate in opposite directionsto cause the active scraping knives 48 and 65 to pass downward over therespective scraping surfaces 47 and 64 of the blocks 44 and 63.

In the path of the fibers as they leave the drum 50 there may be locateda stripper 74, or these fibers, from which the pulp has been removed,may be taken off from the ropes 54 in any other appropriate manner.

The standards 59 and 61 and the vertical shafts 38 and 53 may all becoupled by a suitable supporting framework 75, and the standards 59 and61 may be secured to a suitable bed-plate 7 6 upon which, also, theremay be formed step bearings 77 for the shafts 38 and 53. Fast upon theshaft 38 below the frame there is a bevel gear 78, and secured to theshaft 53 is a similarly located bevel gear 79, and these two gears areconnected through bevel pinions 808O having a common journal mounted ina journal bearing on a standard 81 fast on the bedplate 76.

Power is transmitted to the drum 37 by the ropes 3536 which, in turn,are driven by the sheaves 28-29 on the power driven roller 7, and thisdrum 37 transmits motion to the other drum 50 through the gears 7 8- 79and pinions 80.

If so desired, the leaf holding ropes or bands which, in this particularinstance, may also be used as rope drives, may be reinforced with wirefor strengthening purposes.

I claim 1. In a machine for cleaning the fibers of leaves from pulp, aleaf carrier consisting of a drum mounted on a vertical shaft, endlessbands or ropes engaging rooves in the periphery of the drum, a de ectorplate covering a portion of the periphery of the drum and shaped toguide a portion of each leaf on to the top surface of the drum, and aguide bar above said drum and encircling a portion of the circumferencethereof.

2. In a machine for cleaning the pulp from the fibers of leaves, feedingrollers for breaking the leaves, a horizontal drum adjacent to thefeeding rollers, a plate between the feeding rollers and drum and shapedto guide a portion of the leaves to the top of the drum, endless bandsor ropes extending over the feeding rollers to and around the drum andserving to clamp the leaves to the drum, a pulp-removing mechanism inthe path of the ends of the leaves remote from those on top of the drum,another drum adjacent to the first drum and receiving the endless bandspassing around said first drum and arranged to engage the pulp-free endsof the leaves, and another pulp-removing mechanism in the path of theends of the leaves unacted upon by the first mechanism.

3. In a machine for cleaning the pulp from the fibers of leaves, feedrollers for breaking the leaves, a horizontal drum or carrier adjacentthereto, endless bands extending from the feed rollers to and around theperiphery of the drum, a plate extendingfrom the feeding rollers to thedrums and shaped to direct one end of the leaves up on to the top of thedrum, a guide bar above the top of thedrum adjacent to the peripherythereof, and pulp-removing mechanism in the path of the leaves.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

EMIL HARTMAN.

Witnesses:

F. F. KENDALL, A. SorroLnER.

